Which to use
“description” is a noun and “descriptive” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,909
- “description” frequency rank
- #23,830
- “descriptive” frequency rank
- 25739
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | description | descriptive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de décrire, développement par lequel on décrit, on dépeint ; résultat de cette action. | Féminin singulier de descriptif. |
Where the eye mixes description and descriptive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses description with descriptive
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: description is \dɛs.kʁip.sjɔ̃\ while descriptive is \dɛs.kʁip.tiv\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25739, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
description is recorded at frequency rank #1,909, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛs.kʁip.sjɔ̃\. descriptive is at rank #23,830, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dɛs.kʁip.tiv\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 25739, this pair ranks #339,124 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of description vs descriptive
Shared letters: cdeiprst. Private to "description": no. Private to "descriptive": v.
"description" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVVC · "descriptive" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- description ← ddescription · decsription · desccription · descirption · descripiton · descripption · descriptino · descriptionn
- descriptive ← ddescriptive · decsriptive · desccriptive · descirptive · descripitve · descripptive · descriptiev · descriptivve
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "description" and "descriptive" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "description" or "descriptive" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "description" and "descriptive" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "description" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "descriptive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #339,124 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "description" and "descriptive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "descriptif vs descriptive". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #339,124 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.